World Otter Day 2024

A couple of days ago, 41 kids from three villages by the Cauvery turned up for a few hours to celebrate World Otter Day at The Tamil Nadu Forest Department's fetchingly quaint centre at Aiyur.

The difference between most urban kids and rural kids is always striking.  At breakfast, some kids huddled around a defunct fountain animatedly discussing something they saw in the basin below: two scorpions and a baby keelback snake.  One of the boys took a stick and tickled an agitated scorpion, smiling and telling me that, a year ago, one of these had bitten him.  "That snake is harmless," he added and, of course, he is right.
  

"Tell me everything you know about smooth coated otters," I challenged the kids when we began.  And when they were done, there wasn't much more left to be said.  Some spoke animatedly of otter dens and others of pups, some took sides in an otter vs croc mock contest - and a fun game -, others talked of how otters play and roll on sand.   And then we spoke of threats to otters and the group grew quiet and reflective.
Many of them come from fishing families, so wasn't there conflict between fishers and otters?  "Yes," many replied in unison, "if fishermen find them in nets, they kill them." 
 
So, of course, this is the group to influence, to persuade that another world is possible.....
Madappa, a bright boy in the 9th standard, stood up: "Sir, there is conflict, but otters too have a right to live, the river is theirs too." 
Some nodded their heads, others remained silent.
When we were done, they boarded the Forest Department bus to go home - a long journey, that - and I realised, as always, that the road to conservation is a long and often winding one. 
The stakes will only get higher.
And a special thank you to the brilliant and inimitable Rohan Chakravarty , whose lovely sketch of the smooth coated otter was gifted to each child.  
#WorldOtterDay